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A machine-learning scheduling program to improve firefighters’ mental health. An app that helps doctors connect in multiple languages with patients. And commercial ventures related to both skin infections and reproductive technology.

Those are just four of the six projects by ��֦��Ƶ researchers who were awarded this .

The fellowships have been awarded annually through the since 2019 when a generous $3.24-million endowment was established by alum Wayne Foo and Parex Resources Inc., a ��֦��Ƶ-based oil company.  

Foo, BSc’77, who recently retired, says he’s proud the fellowship is still running after eight years.

“It seems to have built a sustaining culture,” he says. “A lot of the winners express that’s it’s very impactful from a sense of recognition.”

The fellowship, Foo notes, provides a cash grant, as well as a teaching release for the year to professors in faculties across the university.

“Being able to focus their minds on a next stage or a change of focus in their personal development — that’s the transformative element,” he says. 

Foo says some of this year’s projects will try to come up with solutions to emerging problems while others are working to commercialize a product. “It’s very diverse,” he says. “You never know what’s going to work best out of it.”

The Parex Resources Innovation Fellowships were announced on June 2 during , a Faculty of Science event showcasing the university’s most exciting advancements in research, technology and entrepreneurship.

2026-27 Parex Resources Innovation Fellows 

, DVM, PhD, professor, and  

Dr. Ina Dobrinski’s work aims to expand access to assisted reproductive technologies to address infertility in men. 

Dobrinski, who specializes in reproductive biology, says she and a graduate student will pursue industry connections for their work. 

“We are basic scientists,” she says. “But I have always also been involved in the technology development realm of things.” 

The technology that the fellowship supports, she says, could help to expand the research. 

, PhD, professor, Faculty of Science 

Dr. Joe Harrison, BSc’02, BSc’03, PhD’08, is working to develop a strategy to address antibiotic resistance that targets drug-resistant wound infections. 

Harrison, a microbiologist and biochemist, has spent the last decade with his team quietly researching naturally produced substances that come from microbiota (tiny organisms found in the human body) that can sensitize other pathogens. 

“We’ve got these things that we think we can turn into new medicine that will make antibiotic-resistant bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again,” he says. 

The team is aiming to translate their research into a prototype with potential for patent development. 

, PhD, associate professor, , and Cumming School of Medicine  

Firefighters are increasingly responding to addiction and mental health calls — a situation that can be tough on their own mental health. 

“It can be very stressful to be responding to these types of calls,” says Dr. Jennifer Jackson, who is working with the ��֦��Ƶ Fire Department to create a machine-learning scheduling program to try to reduce that stress. 

“We know that, for firefighters, one of the biggest protective factors is working together as a team and, here in ��֦��Ƶ, having strong teams is one of the firefighters’ priorities.” 

, PhD, professor, Faculty of Nursing, and research professor, Cumming School of Medicine 

Dr. Nicole Letourneau is expanding access to the (Attachment and Child Health) program, which helps parents practise the skill of reflective function to promote secure attachment with their infants.  

Secure attachment is linked to mental health and lifelong health outcomes. 

The ATTACH program is currently only offered to parents who are accessing support services from certified facilitators employed at community health agencies. 

Letourneau, an expert in parent-infant mental health who co-created the program, says the fellowship allows her to hire certified facilitators to deliver the program through her not-for-profit company. 

“We will also be able to market the service and improve access to those in rural and remote locations. Geography should never be a barrier to parenting support,” she says. “This funding will ensure more parents have access to this evidence-based program.” 

, MD, clinical assistant professor, Cumming School of Medicine 

Dr. Troy Pederson, MD’94, is working to develop a multilingual conversation intake model for diverse patient populations. 

Pederson, a medical doctor, says patients coming to his ��֦��Ƶ clinic speak multiple languages. He says there’s often time between when those patients get referred to a specialist and when they are seen.  

“We’re really interested in whether we are asking the right questions of people,” he says. “Are we connecting with them where they are at? Are we getting information that is useful to make clinical decisions? The answer is very often, ‘No.’” 

Pederson and two of his colleagues are working to solve the problem by allowing patients to share their information through an app prior to their first clinic visit. 

, PhD, associate professor, , and Educational Leader in Residence, Generative AI,  

Teachers often approach Dr. Soroush Sabbaghan, PhD’15, to see if there’s a better way to create individualized program plans (IPPs) for students who require extra support. 

So, he decided to come up with an artificial intelligence project that could help. 

“We are going to collect student information, and we are going to instruct an artificial intelligence to go look at the literature and identify high-impact teaching strategies specifically for that student,” Sabbaghan says. “The AI will then draw from the collected and provided information to generate an IPP for the teacher to review." 

Once all the approved IPPs are collected, AI could also be used to develop teaching practices that serve every student in the classroom.